The invention relates generally to athletic and exercise equipment and more particularly to bench press apparatus which includes safety equipment to be used in conjunction with bench press exercising. When bench pressing, the person performing the exercise lies on his back on a bench with his feet on the floor and raises and lowers a barbell over his chest. The barbell consists of a bar having at its ends balanced, changeable weights which may have a combined weight in excess of 500 pounds. It is well known that it is extremely dangerous to perform a bench press exercise with heavy weights unless a spotter or other person is nearby in the event of the person performing the exercise has overextended himself and is unable to raise the barbell a final time to engage it with support members or pegs which are disposed above the chest of the user. When the person performing the exercise has assistance to enable him to lift the barbell, he can avoid any possibility that the barbell will settle or fall to his chest and injure him or her. It will be understood the area of contact will be along the relatively small extent of the bar and therefore the potential of injury to the person performing the exercise is extremely significant.
The prior art includes the following U.S. patents: U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,253,662 and 4,249,726. The apparatus described therein has not been wholly satisfactory.
An object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for mechanically assisting a weight lifter should assistance be needed.
Another object of the invention is to provide apparatus which is relatively simple and thus will provide a highly reliable mechanism which can be manufactured inexpensively.